Lotus CEO Dany Bahar addresses the media

(Text: Group Lotus)

Never let the facts get in
the way of a good story….

Take a little look at what we found online.
Don’t you think it’s funny? We do. We had a good
old giggle. After all, we love a bit of self
irony, just as well really. Although it’s funny,
this one’s not accurate but then again, why let
the facts get in the way of a good story? The
inconvenient truth is – surprise, surprise – we
have never said that there are no problems at
Lotus.

So whilst lots of people obviously feel the need
to comment on Lotus’ current situation in the
absence of proper facts or evidence, we can’t
ignore these particular mistruths any longer
even if we would like to, so we have decided to
turn a negative into a positive and use this
hilarious piece of ‘art’ to set the record
straight regarding the status quo at Group Lotus
and try to return a little stability to a fast
changing situation.

False rumour #2: Dato’ Sri Syed is no
longer Managing Director of Proton.
Fact: Again rubbish. He still is.

You can thank good old Tony Fernandes for these
two. Don’t take everything he tweets too
seriously – perhaps he’s still frustrated about
owning Caterham instead of Lotus and the fact
that he fights HRT and Marussia instead of
Mercedes and Ferrari in F1.

And whilst we’re on the subject of jokes - do
you know the latest F1 joke? Mike Gascoyne,
Caterham Group’s Chief Technical Officer, has
gone missing. Why? He’s looking for the 30 to 40
points he predicted for the last F1 season.
Funny.

Speaking of F1: It seems that one special so
called ‘independent’ source is at the root of
the lion’s share of damaging rumours and
misleading stories. The delightful Joe Saward
which leads us nicely to….

False rumour #3: Joe Saward is JUST an
independent journalist.
Fact: He is an active Director for the Caterham
Group.

And unlike some, we don’t want to get too
personal, so we’ll leave it to you to judge how
‘independent’ his stories about Lotus are.

False rumour #4: Group Lotus is no longer
involved in F1.
Fact: Lotus F1 Team and Group Lotus have
reshaped their commercial relationship earlier
this year. The new governance agreement
signifies the continued commitment of Group
Lotus to the team and the sport.

Group Lotus’ branding and marketing rights and
subsequent activities remain unaffected by the
new agreement until at least 2017. Alongside
continued branding and title partnership status,
Group Lotus is also the exclusive master
licensee for all Lotus F1 Team merchandise.

The new agreement was reached following Group
Lotus owners Proton providing team owners Genii
with a £30m loan which is repayable within three
years. In order to secure the loan Genii used
100% of the F1 team’s assets as collateral
meaning that under the conditions of the loan
agreement Proton have been given full title
guarantee to all plant, machinery, show cars,
computers, office and the Lotus F1 Team
headquarters.

In addition Proton retains the rights to
purchase 10% of the F1 team. Another 10% share
option will be activated if the team default on
their loan obligations with Proton.

Again we leave it to your judgement how ‘bad’
Lotus’ current situation in F1 is. And speaking
of bad situations…..

False rumour #5: Group Lotus is going
into administration.
Fact: Rubbish. The takeover of our parent
company Proton by DRB-HICOM couldn’t have come
at a worse time, but up until that point Proton
was (and still remains) fully committed to our
five year business plan to create jobs and to
expand the factory and business. With the
takeover process the funding has been restricted
and DRB-HICOM is taking time to understand what
to do with the business. DRB-HICOM is currently
in the middle of due diligence of Group Lotus
and there have been and continue to be positive
discussions between Group Lotus senior
management and senior management at DRB-HICOM
both here in Hethel and in Malaysia. At no point
has DRB-HICOM indicated to Group Lotus that it
intends to put the company into administration.
The over-active rumour mill is seriously
damaging our business reputation, image and
credibility but it is what it is.

The simple fact is, and we haven’t denied this -
Lotus is going through a very difficult phase at
the moment but we are showing true fighting
spirit every day in trying to keep this vision
alive. This is also a fact – no matter what
people outside of Lotus may say or tweet or
blog.